Monday, November 26, 2012

After being swamped with work-work as well as grad school-work, I finally had time to sit down and think about nominations for the Edublog awards (just under the deadline ...phew!). I still feel that I am very new in this world of social media; however, the impact that some of the people I have met, some of the posts I have read, as well as some of the comments I have received over the past couple of years has definitely changed me as an educator. For this, I am taking time to share a few of my nominations in hopes that others see the benefit of being connected as a group of globals educators. If you would like to nominate some great educational resources as well, check out Edublog for more information.Best Individual Blog - The Innovative EducatorBest EdTech/Resource Sharing Blog - Cybraryman’s Catalogue of Education WebsitesBest Teacher Blog - Miss Kolis’ Room 5 Blog - an amazing resource for parents: newsletters, collection of app reviews, theme activities, classroom resourcesBest Twitter hashtag - #spedchat and #maet (Masters of Ed Tech at Michigan State University)Best Free Web Tool - Google and the collaborative tools available, such as Google Docs and G+ hangoutsBest Educational Wiki - UDLtechtoolkit

Sunday, November 4, 2012

This week marked the end of the Global Read Aloud 2012 and the conclusion of our Charlotte's Web activities. This week we finished reading the adapted book and completed our comprehension book. As a concluding activity, we incorporated a science lesson about spider webs into the mix. (Thanks to Mrs. Pence for sharing her scholastic science sheets with us. It provided a great literature connection.)

We learned:

how a spider web needs to have specific components in the web structure (bridge lines, anchor points, and the spirals)

that the web starts out a liquid and turns into a solid

that although spider webs look fragile, they are actually quite strong

To illustrate and reinforce the concepts of the spider webs, we created our own spider webs using wax paper and liquid glue (such as Elmer's). This hands on activity allowed the students to create their own webs while reinforcing the parts of the web. With assistance, the students first created the bridge lines, then we attached the anchor points. Next we created the spirals. Lastly, we labeled the parts of the web while the glue was wet so that they would stay in place. Some students even chose to draw and add their own "Charlotte". Some students completed this activity within their 2nd grade class. Other students completed this activity while in our classroom. See below for the of our great student spider webs.

In addition to the "glue" webs, we also took some time and encouraged students to draw his/her own spider web on the SMARTBoard using the same structure as mentioned above - creating a web with bridge lines, anchor point, spirals, and maybe even a spider! Check out the examples below.